Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1887-04-09

Should the Spring Of the Year
Come dancing here
But I pity the flower without branch or root =
| 'You think am dead
A soft voice said.
Because not branch or Z root ownl
1never have died,
But close hide
| In q plumy seed that the wind has sown
Patient wait through the long winter hours;
You will SEQ me again
IshAll laugh at you then,
| Out of the eyes of hundred flowersls
Edith n Thomas. in St. Nicholas.
Some STORIES About Dolls.
The most touching incident I remem.
Der about doll is that one was found
some years ago in the tomb Of q Greek
child. As the little girl, who had passed
away many, many centuries ago, held
| in her hands doll, it is quite certain
that this little Greek girl had loving
and sofrowing parents, and they, re-
Numbering how their child had cared
| for her doll when she was alive, when
dead they placed her to rest with her
doll. I have seen q drawing Of this
doll, and it was eight inches long, and
the head, hands, and feet we're made OF
clay. How it was dressed was not
known, because the stuffs it was clad in
had wasted away.
There can be no doubt but that the
toy-makers in the time of the Greeks
and Romans sold very beautiful dolls,
even more artistic than those our little
girls play with to-day. The heads we're
sometimes made out of clay, beauti-
fully modelled, and when these heads
were baked they were fairly lasting.
think that jointed dolls are by no means
new inventions, because the Japanese
made them long and long ago. In fact,
both the Chinese and the Japanese are
masters of the art of toy manufacturing,
and could teach us some lessons in this
respect.
When was youngster there used
to come from Japan box as big as q
tea chest, containing an endless assort-
ment of things, and no two were alike.
There were great many simple me-
chanical toys, that worked away when
we pulled them, with all sorts OF petty
little things cast in lead. A whole box
used to cost dollar, and there was
amusement enough there to last child
for months.
The finest doll I ever saw was ex-
hibited in q Holland museum. It was
at least two hundred years old. It
was made of ivory, all jointed, and you
could move every finger and toe. The
wardrobe for this doll filled a lacquer
chest, which, as far as remember, was
about five feet square. There were
three hundred different costumes, all
complete, and there were great many
masks for the doll, and innumerable
fans. It was said that the dresses
showed all the costumes worn By great
ladies in Japan. I think it was the
most perfect doll I ever heard of.
I remember an Indian doll I saw
once in the hands of little Sioux. It
was made out of piece of cotton-tree
wood. which is rather soft wood, but it
showed some skill in its production.
In the National Museum at Washing
ton there are numbers Of such dolls.
The little girl who was playing with
her doll had been watching for some
time. There was an old, wornout moo
casin on the ground, and she picked it
up, and though it was very dirty she
put it in her mouth, set her white teeth
into it and tore it up. Then she made
. kind of pouch out of the toe of the
moccasin, slipped her wooden doll into
it, tore off two little slips of skin and
slung the doll behind her back, and
pretending that the load was very
heavy, trotted of, bending down, as if
it was all she could do to bear the
weight. She was at first quite indig
nant when laughed at this perform
ance, but I made friends with her by
giving her piece of red ribbon and
an old thimble. had to spoil the
thimble, because the little Sioux girl
would have me make . hole through
it, and she hung the thimble, sometimes
around her own neck, or around the
dolls neck.
She was very clever in decking her
doll, and she painted it's head almost
every day with new color. Where
she got the paints from I do not know,
but sometimes the doll was far from
being nice-looking, as, for instance,
when she painted it black, with red
streaks Once I saw her get into q
Qu0IIO 1 WILL q 11GbA0 OIOlu01 VI u0IDS
who could not have been more than
four years old. She was, I think, about
six.
Someone in our camp had thrown
away q corned-beef can. and the little
girl had found it. It was prize for
her. She set it up on its base and COW
cred her doll with it. The little broth
er. every time she set up her corned-
beef can, would upset it. I think she
was very patient for time, but at last
she got angry and gave her little
brother an ugly scratch. He didn't
boiler bit, but he seized hold of the
doll, took the head between his teeth,
chewed around it, and then pulled out
of the top of the head few long horse
hairs his little sister had stuck on
there. That baby savage, with gleam-
ing eyes, had really made believe to
scalp his sisters doll
I would have stopped the quarrel if